In present computer systems it is common practice to use base plates, often called motherboards, which hold multitudes of electrical terminals extending outward from a plane. This area is generally called the "backplane" or backplane grid. The backplane terminals are protruding pins which are usually of the "wire-wrap" type, which means they are spaced and arranged to permit connecting wire to be wrapped onto the pins by means of hand wrapping, motor assist wrapping, or automatic wiring machine techniques, such as by Gardner-Denver wire-wrap machines.
The problem often arises when coaxial or twisted pair cable is used in the backplane of certain computers. When using these twisted pair or coaxial lines it is not, at this time, feasible to use the automatic wire wrapping machines such as the Gardner-Denver to handle low impedance conductors as required for high speed computers. With the twisted pair, two leads are typically used, one of which is a signal lead and the other a ground lead (or drain lead). Likewise, coaxial cables have a central signal lead and an outer ground lead.
Methods have been developed whereby a motor driven machine having a two-barreled spinner is used to make wire-wrap connections on two terminals at the same time, but this process is complex and involves skillful manual operations which consume time.
Thus the manufacturer of computers and the wiring technician is faced with the problem of how to efficiently arrange to connect the two leads of the coax cable or twisted pair onto adjacent terminal pins on the backplane of the computer; a further part of the problem involves the ability to economically produce suitable connectors in large quantities, preferably using automatic equipment.
Prior art connectors usually connected to backplane pins such that the planar face of the connector was perpendicular to the face of the backplane. Thus no stacking or "nesting" of connectors on the same pair of backplane pins could be effectuated.